Tag: Numbers

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Numbers 12-13 Listen: (5:53) Read: Galatians 2 Listen: (3:44)

Scripture Focus: Numbers 12.1-2

1 Miriam and Aaron began to talk against Moses because of his Cushite wife, for he had married a Cushite. 2 “Has the Lord spoken only through Moses?” they asked. “Hasn’t he also spoken through us?” And the Lord heard this.

Reflection: Complicit Silence

By John Tillman

The most personal and insulting complaint in the desert came from within Moses’ family. His sister and brother, Miriam and Aaron, complained against him. They challenged Moses’ leadership “because of his Cushite wife.”

In our culture, ethnicity often gets flattened out to just three groups: White, Brown, or Black. We shouldn’t sloppily assign modern labels to the people in this story; however, in the Bible, Cush refers to what we call Ethiopia, and a Cushite would be darker-skinned than most Israelites. Miriam and Aaron’s disapproval seems to be ethnically based. Moses was in an interracial marriage, which caused Miriam and Aaron to oppose him.

God heard this and called all three siblings to stand before him. Anyone with siblings knows that when parents call all their children to stand before them, someone is in big trouble.

God focused the punishment on Miriam. Perhaps it was because she was the eldest or a prophet. Perhaps she was the instigator and main critic.

Regardless of why God singled her out, her punishments seemed related to her offenses. She spoke against someone based on ethnicity or skin color, and God made her skin leprous—“white as snow.” She spoke against someone because she considered them outside the community of Israel, and God forced her to spend seven days isolated from that community.

Like everything else God has provided, ethnicity is a gift. However, like the Israelites, we sometimes reject or misuse what God has provided. Every ethnicity will be present in eternity, praising Jesus as Lord. (Revelation 7.9) We are to show “no favoritism.” (Acts 10.34) We are to treat “foreigners” as native-born. (Leviticus 19.34) Do we live like this?

If Miriam was the instigator, it would have been easy for Aaron to say, “I’m not like her!” The best thing in this story is that Aaron didn’t try to excuse himself by blaming Miriam. He confessed “we” have sinned.

Perhaps we aren’t blatantly racist. But do we imply that our race has a corner on God’s ear, good theology, orthodoxy, or leadership? Or do we tacitly endorse such talk? Do we go along with leaders or peers who display racism?

Like Aaron, we must confess any degree to which we participate in racism, including failure to oppose it. Like Miriam, we can repent and be healed. Like Aaron, we must pray for, correct, and restore the repentant. We should not, however, be silent. God hears our complicit silence. (Numbers 12.2)

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons

God looks down from heaven upon us all, to see if there is any who is wise, if there is one who seeks after God. — Psalm 53.2

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.

Read more: Racism Wears a Mask

Even if we are not like Haman, many of us are like Xerxes…We have allowed racism to rise wearing a mask decorated with other concerns.

Racism Wears a Mask

Read more: Poisoning the Heart of the Gospel

“There’s too many detestable foreigners endangering our country.” Sound familiar? It should. It’s the ideology of the wicked Pharaoh.

Poisoning the Heart of the Gospel

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Numbers 9 Listen: (3:20) Read: James 4 Listen: (2:25)

Links for this weekend’s readings:

Read: Numbers 10 Listen: (4:11) Read: James 5 Listen: (3:01)
Read: Numbers 11 Listen: (5:22) Read: Galatians 1 Listen: (3:05)

Scripture Focus: Numbers 9.4-11

4 So Moses told the Israelites to celebrate the Passover, 5 and they did so in the Desert of Sinai at twilight on the fourteenth day of the first month. The Israelites did everything just as the Lord commanded Moses. 6 But some of them could not celebrate the Passover on that day because they were ceremonially unclean on account of a dead body. So they came to Moses and Aaron that same day 7 and said to Moses, “We have become unclean because of a dead body, but why should we be kept from presenting the Lord’s offering with the other Israelites at the appointed time?” 8 Moses answered them, “Wait until I find out what the Lord commands concerning you.” 9 Then the Lord said to Moses, 10 “Tell the Israelites: ‘When any of you or your descendants are unclean because of a dead body or are away on a journey, they are still to celebrate the Lord’s Passover, 11 but they are to do it on the fourteenth day of the second month at twilight. They are to eat the lamb, together with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.

Reflection: Second Passover

By John Tillman

“We’ve had one Passover. But what about second Passover?”

Lord of the Rings jokes aside, Numbers 9 tells us about the second Passover Israel celebrated in the desert and a “second chance” Passover for those unable to celebrate.

The first Passover in the desert went perfectly. This time, there were problems. A group of people was ceremonially unclean because of a dead body. Being ceremonially unclean was not sinful. The most likely cause was that a relative had died, and they buried them. However, to celebrate Passover, one had to be ceremonially clean.

The people brought the problem to Moses. Moses took the problem to God. God’s solution was a “second chance” holiday.

Many of us have probably had “second chance” holidays. When we can’t be with family on the exact day of Christmas, an anniversary, or a birthday, we commonly celebrate a second time when the family can see one another. We’ll celebrate a “birthday week” or even a “birthday month.” God instituted a “Second Passover.” This was a delayed celebration, one month past the original date, for those traveling too far away or those ceremonially unclean and unable to celebrate.

We don’t have a cultural concept similar to being ceremonially unclean because of outer things. No one would bar you from Easter services for having buried your family member. In fact, we’d be likely to encourage you more than anyone else to be there.

However, our inner lives often make us feel unable or unworthy to celebrate or participate in worship as expected. Our feelings of “uncleanness” are related to our inner emotional state. We don’t feel happy, blessed, or peaceful, so we shut down and hope no one notices.

When you feel like you are in the desert, unclean, unhappy, unable to connect to worship, God’s word, or the Holy Spirit, remember these things:

Do not call unclean what God calls clean. (Acts 10.14-16) Your emotions, whether caused by outer things, like a financial loss or physical trauma, or inner things, like depression or anxiety, do not make you unclean in God’s eyes.

Take a second chance to celebrate when you can. When healing, cleansing, or recovering takes time, there is grace for you. Celebrate when you recover. Worship on your way to healing and when injuries are behind you, leap for joy.

Our God is a merciful, problem-solving God. He’ll be there for you at your “Second Passover.”

Divine Hours Prayer: A Reading

Jesus taught us, saying: “In truth I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” — John 3.3

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.

Read more: Reaching Untouchables

She is often called the “woman with an issue of blood,” yet might be more accurately named the “woman with an issue of faith.”

Reaching Untouchables

Read more: Testify to Ultimate Healing

Christ is the bird that dies in our place. We are the living bird, baptized into water and Christ’s blood and then set free.

Testify to Ultimate Healing

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Numbers 8 Listen: (3:27) Read: James 3 Listen: (2:38)

Scripture Focus: Numbers 8.16

16 They are the Israelites who are to be given wholly to me. I have taken them as my own in place of the firstborn, the first male offspring from every Israelite woman.

Reflection: Becoming Firstborns

By John Tillman

Levites were set apart among those set apart. God makes covenants, within covenants, within covenants.

God promised Eve, and all humanity, that her son, the snake-crushing savior, would come. (Genesis 3.13-15) Within that covenant, God promised Abraham that his children, the Israelites, would bless the entire world (Genesis 12.2-3), becoming a priestly nation. (Exodus 19.5-6) Within that covenant, God set apart the Levites.

God chose the entire tribe of Levi as the “firstborn” of Israel to be dedicated to him. Dedicating the firstborn to the Lord was common. Usually, an animal was sacrificed and the family would take the child home as normal. But two things are unusual. Levi was not Israel’s firstborn—Reuben was. Also, life for the tribe of Levi does not go on as normal. They serve and are set apart in a unique way.

God routinely calls those born out of order or in the wrong family to be his and act as his firstborn. Hannah’s firstborn son, Samuel, was not a Levite (1 Samuel 1.24-28) but he served in the Tabernacle for life and God called him by name. (1 Samuel 3.10) Mary’s firstborn son, Jesus, was not a Levite but he was God’s son (Luke 9.35) and was made a priest for eternity. (Hebrews 6.19-20) Jesus sacrificed himself to create a new Tabernacle into which all of us are called. (John 2.19-22; 1 Peter 2.4-5)

Jesus, our high priest, is the “firstborn” of creation and from among the dead. (Colossians 1.15-18) He is the one at the center of all of the covenants. God’s covenants narrowed, becoming more and more exclusive, until Jesus. Then the covenant exploded in exponential expansion.

In Jesus, we join a ministry greater than the Tabernacle of Moses or the Temple of Solomon or the Temple of Jesus’ day. All can now enter because the way has been opened. Despite being born in the wrong order and the wrong family, we are adopted through Jesus. Despite being unworthy, we are judged by the worth of Jesus. Despite being sinful, we are seen as sinless in Jesus.

Jesus makes us his Levites—his priests and ministers. We are set apart in a unique way. Life does not go on as normal for us.

As servants of the snake-crushing priest, we have no battle to fight—only a victory to announce.  We have no enemies to defeat—only conscripted soldiers to set free.

We are set apart to proclaim that outsiders can become insiders and orphans can become firstborns.

Video: “The Last Will Be First” — The Bible Project

Divine Hours Prayer: The Greeting

Your testimonies are very sure, and holiness adorns you house, O Lord, forever and forevermore. — Psalm 93.6

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.

Read more: Christ’s Body is Not God’s Army

Beware those using “spiritual warfare” language…Our weapons are the gifts of the Holy Spirit not any spear, club, or sword. Our enemies are not flesh and blood.

Christ’s Body is Not God’s Army

Read more: God’s Movers

Jesus is still “tabernacled” with us through the Holy Spirit and we are still “God’s movers.”

God’s Movers

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Numbers 7 Listen: (12:50) Read: James 2 Listen: (3:32)

Scripture Focus: Numbers 7:3-5, 9

3 They brought as their gifts before the Lord six covered carts and twelve oxen—an ox from each leader and a cart from every two. These they presented before the tabernacle.
4 The Lord said to Moses, 5 “Accept these from them, that they may be used in the work at the tent of meeting. Give them to the Levites as each man’s work requires.”
9 But Moses did not give any to the Kohathites, because they were to carry on their shoulders the holy things, for which they were responsible.

Reflection: Nothing More, Nothing Less

By Erin Newton

We talk a lot about giving to others, ministry, and the church. Numbers details how one should bring offerings (what kind and in what measure) and how someone could be symbolically dedicated to the Lord through financial giving.

But what about the receiving end? What if you are responsible for the finances of a church, ministry, non-profit, etc.? How are you handling that which is given for the work of the Lord? Do you know how to ethically receive?

With the new tabernacle built, a series of “housewarming” gifts are brought. The tribal leaders bring six carts and pairs of oxen to pull each one. They were not to be slaughtered or burned as a sacrifice. These are practical and useful offerings to the Lord and distributed for the work.

The Kohathites received none of these gifts. But this was not a punishment! Their duties were to carry the most holy items on their shoulders. These were items too precious and sacred to be carried by mere oxen. It was a privileged duty. Carts and oxen simply were not part of their equation.

As Roy Gane states, “The gifts meet needs created by the Levite job descriptions.” The job requirements determined what was given and who got what. No special favors were done.

I’m sure the Kohathites could have found some alternative use for carts and oxen, perhaps to carry personal belongings. But that would have been a misuse of gifts and would have taken items that belonged to another part of tabernacle ministry.

In Acts 2:45, the community of new Jesus-followers shared their wealth and resources; “they sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.” Gifts were based on needs.

How do you receive gifts in the spirit of Numbers 7?

It is no small thing to be entrusted with distributing money or resources that are benevolently given. Many church leaders today are criticized for their excessive lifestyles, seemingly taking the financial gifts from the church and increasing their salary in return.

Are these gifts received to meet the need described by the pastor’s duties? Some may claim a private jet is a necessity or a church-funded vacation is justified by their hard work. The luxury accrued by leaders is like Kohathites taking oxen and carts.

God calls his people to serve him with the necessary gifts and resources to get the job done—nothing more, nothing less.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Greeting

I will offer you a freewill sacrifice and praise your Name, O Lord, for it is good.
For you have rescued me from every trouble, and my eye has seen the ruin of my foes. — Psalm 54.6-7

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.

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Links for today’s readings:

Read: Numbers 6 Listen: (4:04) Read: James 1 Listen: (3:26)

Scripture Focus: Numbers 6.1-4

1 The Lord said to Moses, 2 “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘If a man or woman wants to make a special vow, a vow of dedication to the Lord as a Nazirite, 3 they must abstain from wine and other fermented drink and must not drink vinegar made from wine or other fermented drink. They must not drink grape juice or eat grapes or raisins. 4 As long as they remain under their Nazirite vow, they must not eat anything that comes from the grapevine, not even the seeds or skins.

Reflection: Called to More

By John Tillman

Anyone, male or female, could take Nazarite vows.

Nazarites under vows were limited in many ways, usually for a short period. Their hair went uncut. They abstained from grape-related products, whether seed, oil, vinegar, or wine. They followed purity laws, such as not being near dead bodies, more strictly than others. Becoming ceremonially unclean in any way, would mean shaving their head and restarting the period of their vow. The limitations on the Nazarites made the vow costly and difficult. Perhaps this was to dissuade rash vows. Making a vow to God is serious.

The Bible’s most famous Nazarite is also the worst. From birth, Samson was called to be a Nazarite for life. God used Samson despite constant violations of his vows. He kept the most obvious one of not cutting his hair. But he drank, touched dead bodies (including the bodies of animals and people he killed), and was sexually promiscuous and impure. Only when his head was shaved, did God leave him to be captured and humiliated.

Jesus was a Nazarene but not a Nazarite. Nazarenes were from Nazareth. Nazarites made a vow to God. The village and the vow have nothing in common, other than their similar sound.

Jesus’ cousin, John the Baptizer was probably a Nazarite from birth, like Samson. (Luke 1.11-17) Luke does not explicitly mention the Nazarite vow, but John’s and Samson’s stories are similar. They are both miracle children promised to barren couples. Both are to abstain from the fruit of the vine. Both are tasked to begin something new—Samson began throwing off the yoke of the Philistines and John called people to throw off the yoke of sin, returning to the Lord in repentance. Both ended their lives as captives to the oppressive government they lived under.

Paul also fulfilled and paid the cost of vows that were probably Nazarite vows. (Acts 18.18; 21.22-24)

Christians are set apart not by Nazarite vows but by following Jesus the Nazarene. Jesus paid our vow’s cost and completed its work. All that is left for us to do is follow him. Yet, as we follow, we may be called to more.

Beware rash vows, but consider: Is the Holy Spirit stirring you to something “more?” Is there a “vow” you are called to? When we have been given much, more is expected. When we are faithful in a little, more will be given.

Divine Hours Prayer: A Reading

Jesus said: “In all truth I tell you, whoever welcomes the one I send, welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me, welcomes the one who sent me.” — John 13.20

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.

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